Greg Kinnear Biography

news-details The youngest of three sons, Greg Kinnear was born in Logansport, Indiana, USA on June 17, 1963 to a diplomat father and staying home mother. Led his ordinary life with his two brothers, James and Steve, the siblings were often brought by their parents Edward and Suzanne Kinnear, moving in and out from one country to another, reaching Beirut, Lebanon up to Athens, Greece. It was during their dwelling in Athens, while a student there, that the fine-looking broadcaster-turned-actor encountered for the very first time on the public performance ventured into the role of talk show host with his radio show "School Daze With Greg Kinnear."

Upon intended to pursue higher education, Greg then headed back to his home country and was then listed as the 1985 alumni of the University of Arizona in Tucson with a degree in Broadcast Journalism. Subsequent to his graduation from the institution, he headed out to Los Angeles, where he luckily landed his first job as a marketing assistant with Empire Entertainment. It was there that Greg got his first taste of show business, creating promotional campaigns for such films as "Space Sluts in the Slammer" before then found a job with the Movietime cable channel. No one would have guessed that Greg once followed the MTV VJ audition, which he found it unsuccessful. The failure did not end up as a total doomsday, for he then, using an audition tape from the failed attempt at an MTV VJ position, became a host and on-location reporter for the channel. However, things slightly changed when he was fired soon as Movietime became the E! Entertainment Network.

Even though it was difficult for him at first, Greg soon found himself taking bit parts on such television shows as "Life Goes On" in 1989 and "L.A. Law" in 1991. His following roles rolled over to the backstage ones, becoming the man behind the television show "Best of the Worst". He bore the credits for creator, co-executive producer and all together as the anchor. The show itself was broadcast during 1990 to 1991. From this point on his luck began to change. He was hired back by E! to host its new talk show "Talk Soup" which proved to be hugely popular with Greg eventually became its executive producer as well until the year of 1994 when the man decided to quit and join the NBC late-night talk show, "Later with Cynthia Garret." It seems the year of 1994 did belong to Greg as the chance to hit the big screen in a screenplay by Damon Wayans titled "Blankman" approached. Unsurprisingly, Greg played as a television host in this fiction comedy. The chance to totally detach from himself finally came through the character of David Larrabee he played in the remake of the 1954 classic movie, "Sabrina".

The film was less than success but it, indeed, served as a stepping-stone for Greg to do better in his next film feature, the 1996 comedy "Dear God" in which he snatched the leading role as Tom Turner. The latter flick also was failed to serve as a good vehicle for him to strive high in the industry, and it was not until he got a part in James L. Brooks' "As Good As It Gets" that his acting career began to take flight. Thanks to the 1997 blockbuster comedy drama that the ride to superstardom began for the actor as his role as Simon Bishop delivered him to receive several nominations, particularly that of Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, and even the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture and Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, all of which for the year of 1998.

Greg's next film was the 1997 romantic comedy about the inconceivable "A Smile Like Yours" which had him starring opposite Lauren Holly, portraying a childless couple attempting to conceive discover that his sperm are "lazy". Met with lukewarm reviews and a low box office, Greg's hard work was paid off at last long through the romantic comedy "You've Got Mail" released in 1998 by Warner Brothers Films. With ticket sales reached $18,426,749 in 2,948 theaters domestically and worldwide income of $250,821,495, the flick obviously scored gold while at the same time automatically brought more film offers for the star who subsequently took part in some other titles, including "Mystery Men" (1999) as Captain Amazing, "What Planet Are You From?" (2000) as Perry Gordon, the backstabbing co-worker, and "Nurse Betty" (2000) as Dr. David Ravell/George McCord, the vain soap opera actor. He was next seen demonstrated his patented smugness as a college professor romancing a student in the comedy flick titled "The Loser" (2000). He rounded out that busy year portraying the meek lover of a trampy socialite in the neo-Gothic "The Gift".

Began the new millennium, Greg performed as Ray Brown, the catalyst for an investigative report into the nature of male behavioral patterns, in "Someone Like You" (2001) and was then followed by a performance in the small screen adaptation of the Pulitzer-winning exploration of marriage, "Dinner With Friends" (HBO, 2001), the ensemble of the Vietnam-era drama "We Were Soldiers" (2002), plus a lead role in the film "Auto Focus" (2002) playing Bob Crane, the star of "Hogan's Heroes" whose secret life of sexual escapades was discovered after he was found murdered in his apartment. The following year Greg was cast alongside Matt Damon as one-half of a pair of conjoined twins in the Farrelly Brothers' comedy "Stuck on You". What's next for the guy was a memorable guest stint on "Friends" in November of 2003, playing the professor who wins back Ross' beautiful girlfriend Charlie, played by another "Talk Soup" host turned actor, Aisha Tyler.

Maybe wanted to give hand at something new, Greg made a great turn to science-based thriller, playing in such genre opposite Rebecca Romijn as a couple who raises a clone of their dead child, with chilling results in the 2004 release titled "Godsend". After that fill in the voice of Ratchet, a corporate bigwig in a world inhabited by mechanical beings in the CGI-animated "Robots" (2005), he then was billed to play Vic Morrow role of opposing coach in Richard Linklater's remake of the classic kids' baseball film "Bad News Bears" (2005). Still in 2005, Greg had at least one more movie project to finish that was "The Matador" before appeared in "Little Miss Sunshine", "Invincible", "Fast Food Nation", and "Unknown", all came up in 2006. While 2007 saw the actor line up with Morgan Freeman and Radha Mitchell to highlight "The Feast of Love", 2009 refreshingly would find him back to comedy in "Ghost Town (2009)", in which he is billed as a ghost looking for help from a dentist who can see dead people, played by Ricky Gervais.

As of his private life, Greg married to his future wife who also is his longtime girlfriend, Helen Labdon, on May 1st, 1999. They have two daughters together, Lily Kathryn born in 2003 and Audrey Mae born on June 13, 2006. They previously suffered two miscarriages, one at seven months pregnant in 2001 and another in 2005.